The myth of Jupiter, Io and Juno, Giovanni Angelo Canini (Rome, 1608 – Rome, 1666)

Giovanni Angelo Canini (Rome, 1608 – Rome, 1666) – The myth of Jupiter, Io and Juno
Oil on canvas (84 x 100 cm – in frame 106 x 125 cm.)
The work is accompanied by expertise from the prof. Giancarlo Sestieri (Rome)

''I thank you for bringing to my attention this qualitative and interesting mythological scene (oil on canvas, 84 x 100 cm) which refers to an episode narrated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, precisely the myth of Jupiter and Io, one of the unrequited loves more fascinating than classical mythology, an episode taken from ancient Latin culture, and taken up again starting from the Renaissance, such a poignant love story with profound symbolic meanings.

One day Zeus falls madly in love with Io, priestess of Hera, daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, and tries to conquer her. But to hide her infidelity from his wife Hera, he envelops the earth with a blanket of clouds, without imagining that she would discover his trap very quickly.

Suspicious, she orders the mists to dissolve, thus managing to find her husband who, to protect himself from his wife's anger, transforms the nymph into a white heifer. This subterfuge, however, did not deceive her. It was her that, once she reached the presence of her husband, she asked him to give her the animal. Although Zeus knew that granting her to her meant condemning her to a sad fate, he preferred to avoid the wrath of her bride and handed over her heifer to her.

I have gone at length in the description of this scene because, despite being a subject often taken up in painting especially starting from the second half of the 17th century and in the first half of the following century, it is very rare to find examples of it with such attention to detail that make one aware of the succession of events.

Furthermore, despite its considerable dimensions, typical of an aristocratic picture gallery, it has a clear and well-defined figurative imprint in its contours, together with a vivid pictorial imprint but with frozen colors, which reveal the presence of an author also knowledgeable about engraving. which probably constituted his main activity together with the constant practice of drawing.

In fact, the painting taken into consideration here can be traced back to the hand of Giovanni Angelo Canini (Rome 1608 – 1666).

A testimony of certain autography which could be linked to the series of works created by Canini for Cardinal Camillo Astaldi, a patron who in 1645-50 had commissioned various pictorial decorations with profane subjects (some signed), including "Stories of Rinaldo and Armida ”, intended for his Theodoli Castle in Sambuci (near Tivoli), many of which have been lost.

Datable to around 1650, the work reflects Canini's emancipation from the initial prevailing stylistic approach based on Domenichino, of whom he was a direct pupil until the master's departure for Naples, remaining however tied to his classicist orbit, but affirming his evident also interested in the growing affirmations of the Baroque.

In fact, the present painting, although created with a figurative language that is still strictly classicistic, however follows an already Baroque narrative taste, in the detailed description of the events, in which the human figure plays a leading role, despite clear arboreal elements in the background .

With regard to his privately intended pictorial activity, which has unfortunately been largely lost or obscured by deviant attributions, it is worth remembering that Giovanni Angelo Canini had acquired significant credit among the Roman cultural elite, thanks to his close relationships of esteem with Queen Christina of Sweden, as well as the documented relations with the Savoy court. ”

The conservation conditions of the work appear good.